CHAPTER 2 FOREST COVER

2.01 Introduction Assessment of forest cover using satellite data on a two-year cycle has been one of the most important activities of FSI since 1986. The present assessment is the 9th assessment in this series. Forest cover is defined as an area more than 1 ha in extent and having tree canopy density of 10 percent and above. This definition is based on the resolution of digital satellite data (pixel size 23.5m x 23.5m), scale of interpretation (1:50,000) and the technique employed for image processing. No distinction with respect to the type of tree crops (natural or man made) or tree species has been attempted since robust techniques are not available for making such distinction. Moreover, no cognizance of the type of land ownership or land use or legal status of land was taken as geo- referenced maps depicting such information was neither available nor possible to collect at country level. Thus, all species of trees (including bamboos, fruits or palms, etc.) and all types of lands (forest, private, community or institutional) satisfying the basic criteria of canopy density of more than 10 percent have been delineated as forest cover while interpreting satellite data. The minimum area of 1 ha for forest cover has been kept because this is the smallest area that can be delineated on a map at 1:50,000 scale. 2.02 Satellite Data and its Period The present assessment is based on digital interpretation of satellite data for the entire country. The satellite data was procured from the National Remote Sensing Agency (NRSA), Hyderabad in digital form. For the present assessment, LISS-III sensor data of IRS-1D satellite with a resolution of 23.5 m has been used. Data for nearly all the states pertained to the period from October to December 2002. These are the months when cloud cover is low and the deciduous trees still have leaves to provide satisfactory reflectance for the satellite sensors. It may be mentioned here that one scene of LISS III covers an area of about 20,000 km2 (140 km x 140 km). Due to considerable overlap (15 to 20 percent) among adjacent scenes, as many as 391 scenes are required to envelope the entire country. Also, at the border of the country or for islands, the whole scene has to be procured though area of interest may be very small part of the scene. While procuring data, only those scenes were selected where cloud cover was less than 10 percent. 2.03 Methodology Using Digital Image Processing (DIP) software, digital data from satellite available on CDs is downloaded on the Workstation. Radiometric and contrast corrections were applied for removing radiometric defects and for improving visual impact of the False Colour Composites (FCC). Geometric rectification of the data was carried out with the help of scanned SOI toposheets. Based on tone and texture the forest cover areas were delineated. Interpretation of forest cover for the whole country was done at 1:50,000 scale using polyconic projection. Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) transformation was also used for density classification of forest cover. Areas of less than one hectare, whether classified as forest within non-forest areas or blanks within forested areas, were excluded by clustering pixels and merged with the surrounding class. The methodology has been shown schematically in Figure 2.01.

Figure 2.01 Flow Chart Showing Methodology of Forest Cover Mapping

The following categories of land use were delineated based on canopy density:

Forest cover Crown density range Very Dense Forest (VDF) > 70 percent Moderately Dense Forest (MDF) 40-70 percent Open Forest (OF) 10-40 percent Non-forest cover Scrub <10 percent Non-forest - Water bodies -

Very Dense Forest Moderately Dense Forest

Open Forest Mangroves

Fig. 2.02 Pictorial illustration of different classes of forests Highly degraded forest or wastelands with stumped trees having canopy density less than 10 percent were classified as scrubs, a category of non-forest cover. Shadow areas in the scenes were treated separately. Density in shadow area was either based on ground information or was assigned according to the nearest neighbour class of density. Mangrove cover was also delineated due to their unique signature along the coastal areas. Mangroves were further classified into three density classes of forest cover described above. After delineation, mangrove cover was added up with forest cover in the respective density classes. This was then followed by extensive ground verification and all the necessary corrections were subsequently incorporated. Sheet wise mosaic of districts and States/UTs was made using SOI and Census data to compute district wise and State/UT wise forest cover. 2.04 Limitations of Remote Sensing Technology However, there are still certain limitations with remote sensing technology when used for assessment of forest cover. Some of the major ones are listed below: • Since resolution of data from LISS-III is 23.5 m, the linear strips of forest cover along roads, canals, bunds and rails of width less than the resolution are generally not captured. • Young plantations and species having less chlorophyll contents in their crown do not give proper reflectance and as a result are difficult to be interpreted correctly. • Considerable details on ground may be obscured in areas having clouds and shadows. It is difficult to interpret such areas without the help of collateral data. • Variation in spectral reflectance during leafless period poses problem in interpretation. • Gregarious occurrence of bushy vegetation and certain agricultural crops, such as lantana, sugarcane, cotton, etc., often pose problems in delineation of forest cover, as their reflectance is similar to that of tree canopy.

2.05 Forest Cover: 2003 Assessment Results of present assessment (2003) of forest cover in the country are summarized in a pie chart in Figure 2.01 and Table 2.01. Forest cover is shown in three density classes viz., very dense forest (VDF) with more than 70% canopy density, moderately dense forests (MDF) with canopy density between 40% and 70% and open forests (OF) with canopy density between 10% and 40%. Scrub and water bodies are also delineated. As mentioned earlier, area under VDF, MDF and OF also includes mangrove cover of the corresponding density class. The total forest cover of the country as per 2003 assessment is 678,333 km² and this constitutes 20.64 percent of the geographic area of the country. Of this, 51,285 km² (1.56 percent) is very dense forest, 339,279 km² (10.32 percent) is moderately dense forest while 287,769 km² (8.76 percent) is open forest cover. The non-forest cover includes scrub and is estimated to cover an area of 40,269 km².

Table 2.01 Status of Forest Cover in India Class Area (km²) Percent of Geographic Area Forest Cover a) VDF 51,285 1.56 b) MDF 339,279 10.32 c) Open 287,769 8.76 Total Forest Cover* 678,333 20.64 Non-forest Cover Scrub 40,269 1.23 Non-forest** 2,568,661 78.13 Total Geographic Area 3,287,263 100.00 * Including 4,461 km2 under mangroves (0.14% of country’s geographic area) ** Excludes scrubs and includes water bodies

Forest Cover Assessment 2003

1.23% 1.56% 10.32%

VDF 8.76% MDF Total Forest Cover = 20.64% Open

Non-forest

Scrub

78.13%

Figure 2.03: Forest Cover

Forest Cover

90000

80000

70000

60000 Open 50000 Moderately Dense Very Dense 40000

30000 (Area in '000 sq.km.)

20000

10000

0 Goa Goa Bihar Bihar Delhi Orissa Kerala Assam Punjab Punjab Sikkim Sikkim Gujarat Tripura Tripura Haryana Manipur Manipur Mizoram Jharkhand Nagaland Nagaland Rajasthan Rajasthan Karnataka Tamilnadu Meghalaya Meghalaya Chandigarh Chandigarh Uttaranchal Uttaranchal West Bengal Bengal West Pondicherry Maharashtra Chhattisgarh Lakshdweep Uttar Pradesh Daman & Diu & Daman Andhra Pradesh Madhya Pradesh Himachal Pradesh Jammu & Kashmir Arunachal Pradesh Andaman & Nicobar Andaman & Dadar Nagar Haveli

Figure 2.04: Forest Cover in States and UTs

2.06 State/UT wise Forest Cover The State/UT wise forest cover in the country is shown in Table 2.02 and as bar chart in Figure 2.03. It shows that Madhya Pradesh with 76,429 km² has the maximum area under forest cover, followed by Arunachal Pradesh (68,019 km²) and Chhattisgarh (55,998 km²). Considering proportion of geographic area under forest cover, Mizoram has the maximum percentage (87.42 percent). It is followed by Andaman & Nicobar Islands (84.42 percent), Nagaland (82.09percent) and Arunachal Pradesh (81.22 percent). Table 2.02 Forest cover in States/UTs in India (Area in km²) State/UT Geographic Forest Cover Percent Scrub Area VDF MDF OF Total Andhra Pradesh 275,069 23 24,356 20,040 44,419 16.15 9,748 Arunachal Pradesh 83,743 13,907 39,604 14,508 68,019 81.22 116 Assam 78,438 1,684 11,358 14,784 27,826 35.48 219 Bihar 94,163 76 2,951 2,531 5,558 5.90 150 Chhattisgarh 135,191 1,540 37,440 17,018 55,998 41.42 88 Delhi 1,483 0 52 118 170 11.47 1 Goa 3,702 0 1,255 901 2,156 58.24 0 Gujarat 196,022 114 6,231 8,601 14,946 7.62 1,743 Haryana 44,212 2 518 997 1,517 3.43 68 Himachal Pradesh 55,673 1,093 7,883 5,377 14,353 25.78 389 Jammu & Kashmir 222,236 2,102 8,395 10,770 21,267 9.57 2,947 Jharkhand 79,714 2,544 9,137 11,035 22,716 28.50 807 Karnataka 191,791 431 22,030 13,988 36,449 19.00 3,141 Kerala 38,863 334 9,294 5,949 15,577 40.08 72 Madhya Pradesh 308,245 4,000 37,843 34,586 76,429 24.79 2,378 Maharashtra 307,713 8,070 20,317 18,478 46,865 15.23 4,175 Manipur 22,327 720 5,818 10,681 17,219 77.12 74 Meghalaya 22,429 168 6,323 10,348 16,839 75.08 169 Mizoram 21,081 84 7,404 10,942 18,430 87.42 274 Nagaland 16,579 57 5,650 7,902 13,609 82.09 231 Orissa 155,707 288 27,882 20,196 48,366 31.06 5,346 Punjab 50,362 0 743 837 1,580 3.14 22 Rajasthan 342,239 14 4,482 11,330 15,826 4.62 4,564 Sikkim 7,096 458 1,904 900 3,262 45.97 360 Tamilnadu 130,058 2,440 9,567 10,636 22,643 17.41 2,040 Tripura 10,486 58 4,988 3,047 8,093 77.18 1 Uttar Pradesh 240,928 1,297 4,699 8,122 14,118 5.86 749 Uttaranchal 53,483 4,002 14,420 6,043 24,465 45.74 320 West Bengal 88,752 2,303 3,742 6,298 12,343 13.91 75 Andaman & Nicobar 8,249 3,475 2,809 680 6,964 84.42 1 Chandigarh 114 1 8 6 15 13.16 1 Dadra & Nagar Haveli 491 0 145 80 225 45.82 - Daman & Diu 112 0 2 6 8 7.45 - Lakshdweep 32 0 12 11 23 71.88 - Pondicherry 480 0 17 23 40 8.33 - Total 3,287,263 51,285 339,279 287,769 678,333 20.64 40,269 2.07 Forest Cover in Hill Districts The National Forest Policy (1988), aims at having a minimum of one third of geographic area of the country under forest and tree cover and enjoins maintaining two third of the area in hills under forest cover in order to prevent erosion and land degradation and also to ensure maintenance of ecological balance and environmental stability. It is therefore felt desirable to know the extent of forest cover in the hill districts in the country. With this objective FSI started assessing forest cover in the hill districts of the country since 1997. The classification of hill districts and talukas is as adopted by the Planning Commission. A hill taluka is one where altitude is above 500 m from the mean sea level. The Planning Commission has applied this criterion for Hill Areas and Western Ghats Development Programmes. Since forest cover assessment is done taking district as a unit, only those districts have been categorised as hill districts where the total area of hill talukas exceeds 50 percent of the geographic area of a district. The abstract of forest cover in hill districts is given in Table 2.03. The hill districts have been marked “H” in the district wise forest cover tables in Chapter 7. There are 123 districts in the country that can be classified as hill districts on the basis of the criterion explained above. The total forest cover in the hill districts of the country is 274,383 km² constituting 38.77 percent of the geographic area of these districts, against the goal of 66 percent as laid down in the National Forest Policy 1988. Out of total 123 hill districts, only 54 districts have forest cover more than 66 percent. Of the rest, 36 hill districts have forest cover less than 66 percent but more than 33 percent and the remaining 33 districts have even less than 33 percent forest cover (including 10 districts having less than 10 percent forest cover). Table 2.03: State/UT wise Forest Cover in Hill Districts (Area in km²) State/UT No. of Geographic Forest Cover Percent Hill area in Hill Very Moderate Open Total Forest Dist. Districts Dense Dense Forest Cover Forest Forest Arunachal Pradesh 13 83,743 13,907 39,604 14,508 68,019 81.22 Assam 3 19,153 943 5,678 6,537 13,158 68.70 Himachal Pradesh 12 55,673 1,093 7,883 5,377 14,353 25.78 Jammu & Kashmir (a) 14 101,388 1,557 6,326 7,712 15,595 15.38 (b) * 120,848 545 2,069 3,058 5,672 4.69 Karnataka 6 48,046 379 16,351 5,641 22,371 46.56 Kerala 10 29,572 315 7,428 5,057 12,800 43.28 Maharashtra 7 69,905 307 6,334 5,596 12,237 17.50 Manipur 9 22,327 720 5818 10681 17219 77.12 Meghalaya 7 22,429 168 6,323 10,348 16,839 75.08 Mizoram 8 21,081 84 7404 10942 18430 87.42 Nagaland 8 16,579 57 5,650 7,902 13,609 82.09 Sikkim 4 7,096 458 1,904 900 3,262 45.97 Tamil Nadu 5 22,789 1,121 2,710 2,209 6,040 26.50 Tripura 3 10,486 58 4,988 3,047 8,093 77.18 Uttaranchal 13 53,483 4,002 14,420 6,043 24,465 45.74 West Bengal 1 3,149 472 893 856 2,221 70.53 Total 123 707,74726,186 141,783 106,414 274,38338.77 * In area under illegal occupation of Pakistan and China

2.08 Forest Cover in Tribal Districts Tribals in the country are traditional forest dwellers. Forests play a significant role in the tribal economy, as these are a source of subsistence and livelihood for the tribal communities. It is commonly believed that the tribal communities live in harmony with nature and protect forests. Assessment of forest cover in tribal areas therefore acquires a special significance. Since the 1997 assessment, FSI is regularly providing information on forest cover in districts identified as tribal districts under the Integrated Tribal Development Programme of the Government of India. In addition, all the districts of Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, Tripura, Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Lakshdweep have also been included in the list of Tribal districts owing to high tribal population. The abstract of forest cover in the tribal districts is given in Table 2.04. Out of 593 districts in the country, 187 districts have been identified as tribal districts. The present assessment reveals that the total forest cover in these tribal districts is 407,298 km². It constitutes 36.91 percent of the total geographic area of the tribal districts. A comparison of 2003 assessment of forest cover in tribal districts with that of 2001 assessment shows a net increase of 3,211 km2 since 2001 assessment. The tribal districts are marked “T” in the district wise tables of forest cover in Chapter 7. The forest cover in the tribal districts constitutes 60.04 percent of the total forest cover of the country whereas the geographic area of 187 tribal districts forms only 33.6 percent of the total geographic area of the country. It demonstrates that tribal districts are generally rich in forest cover, and hence forest resources. Enhanced investments in forestry activities can be used as an instrument for rapid economic development of tribal communities. Table 2.04: State/UT wise forest cover in Tribal Districts (Area in km²) State/UT No. of Geographic Forest Cover Percent Tribal area in Forest Dist. Tribal VDF MDF OF Total Cover Districts Andhra Pradesh 8 87,090 15 16,355 8,955 25,325 29.08 Arunachal Pradesh 13 83,743 13,907 39,604 14,508 68,019 81.22 Assam 16 50,137 677 4,625 6,750 12,052 24.04 Chhattisgarh 9 90,134 1,286 26,922 12,100 40,308 44.72 Gujarat 8 48,650 105 3,642 3,223 6,970 14.33 Himachal Pradesh 3 26,764 456 1,510 1,240 3,206 11.98 Jharkhand 8 44,413 1,553 5,815 6,265 13,633 30.70 Karnataka 5 26,597 244 8,415 3,653 12,312 46.29 Kerala 9 27,228 259 7,082 4,828 12,169 44.69 Madhya Pradesh 18 139,448 3,247 21,125 16,725 41,097 29.47 Maharashtra 11 138,272 6,681 11,628 10,447 28,756 20.80 Manipur 9 22,327 720 5,818 10,681 17,219 77.12 Meghalaya 7 22,429 168 6,323 10,348 16,839 75.08 Mizoram 8 21,081 84 7,407 10,942 18,430 87.42 Nagaland 8 16,579 57 5,650 7,902 13,609 82.09 Orissa 12 86,124 287 19,110 13,614 33,011 38.33 Rajasthan 5 38,218 - 2,335 3,937 6,272 16.41 Sikkim 4 7,096 458 1,904 900 3,262 45.97 Tamil Nadu 6 30,720 543 2,558 3,377 6,478 21.09 Tripura 3 10,486 58 4,988 3,047 8,093 77.18 Uttar Pradesh 1 7,680 366 502 446 1,314 17.11 West Bengal 11 69,403 2,286 3,644 5,779 11,709 16.87 Andaman & Nicobar 2 8,249 3,475 2,809 680 6,964 84.42 Dadra & Nagar Haveli 1 491 - 145 80 225 45.82 Daman & Diu 1 72 - 1 2 3 4.17 Lakshdweep 1 32 - 12 11 23 71.88 Total 187 1,103,463 36,932 209,929 160,440 407,298 36.91

2.09 Loss of Forest Cover due to Shifting Cultivation in N-E States

Shifting cultivation or Jhum cultivation is an agriculture landuse prevalent mainly in North-Eastern States of India where forest land use is converted to agriculture landuse temporarily and this activity is repeated after certain years. Such practice not only affects forest cover of the area adversely but also reduces its productivity and increase soil erosion.

FSI assessed forest cover affected by shifting cultivation in North-Eastern States between the period 2001-2003 and the results are shown in Table 2.05.

Table 2.05 Loss of Forest Cover due to Shifting Cultivation in N-E States (Area in km2) State Dense Forest Open Forest Total Assam 272 337 609 Arunachal Pradesh 663 262 925 Manipur 125 730 855 Meghalaya 141 543 684 Mizoram 351 336 687 Nagaland 321 1,011 1,332 Tripura 221 163 384 Total 2,094 3,382 5,476

2.10 Extent of water bodies inside forest cover

Food & Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has included oceans, seas, lakes, reservoirs and rivers in the definition of water body. Since forests play an important role in precipitation and conserving water, FSI has made an attempt to assess water bodies inside forest cover. These water bodies include rivers, perennial rivers and streams, lakes, ponds, wetlands, creeks, straits etc. having an area of more than 1 ha. State/UT wise extent of water bodies inside forest cover is given in Table 2.06. It is pertinent to mention here that the forest cover as assessed in this assessment and also in previous assessments, does not include water bodies.

Table 2.06 State/UT wise Extent of Water bodies within Forest cover (Area in km2) S. No. State Water bodies % of Forest cover 1. Andhra Pradesh 1,496 3.37 2. Arunachal Pradesh 396 0.58 3. Assam 359 1.29 4. Bihar 66 1.19 5. Chhattisgarh 770 1.37 6. Delhi 5 2.94 7. Goa 25 1.16 8. Gujarat 3,110 20.81 9. Haryana 22 1.45 10. Himachal Pradesh 361 2.52 11. Jammu & Kashmir 380 1.79 12. Jharkhand 79 0.35 13. Karnataka 893 2.45 14. Kerala 299 1.92 15. Madhya Pradesh 1,324 1.73 16. Maharashtra 769 1.63 17. Manipur 35 0.21 18. Meghalaya 44 0.26 19. Mizoram 46 0.25 20. Nagaland 45 0.33 21. Orissa 1,541 3.19 22. Punjab 11 0.71 23. Rajasthan 118 0.74 24. Sikkim 17 0.52 25. Tamilnadu 174 0.77 26. Tripura 43 0.53 27. Uttar Pradesh 1,184 8.38 28. Uttaranchal 331 1.35 29. West Bengal 2,620 21.23 30. Andaman & Nicobar Islands 819 11.76 31. Chandigarh 2 10.07 32. Dadra & Nagar Haveli 12 5.33 33. Daman & Diu 0 0.00 34. Lakshadweep 0 0.00 35. Pondicherry 0 0.00 Total 17,396 2.56

2.11 Forest Cover vis-à-vis Forest Area A common reader may not distinguish between forest cover and forest area whereas these are two different entities. As explained earlier, a land may be recorded as forest area and under management of forest department but may not have any discernible forest cover. On the other hand, all wooded lands or plantations, delineated as forest cover from satellite data may not be legally recorded as forest area as these could be private plantations or institutional wood lots. Although, majority of forested lands happen to be within legally recorded forest areas, all the changes taking place in the forest cover is not necessarily due to changes in the forests managed by the forest departments. Therefore, it is important from policy and planning point of view to know the extent and quality of forest cover within recorded forest areas and outside it. This information will be important and useful for the concerned forest department, civil administration and others. With availability of GIS tools, such an exercise would be very convenient if the latest geo-referenced forest maps for the whole country showing the latest boundaries of recorded forest areas were available at 1:50,000 or 1:250,000 scales. In absence of this information and with a view to provide some estimates for the proportion of forest cover within recorded forest areas, FSI took up an in-house exercise. Boundaries of 32 groups of important Reserved Forests (RF) in 27 State/UTs were digitised from Survey of India toposheets. The RFs contiguous to each other or occurring in the same toposheets (of 1:50,000 scale) were grouped together for this exercise. These digitised boundaries were then overlaid on forest cover map of 2003 assessment and forest cover within each RF was assessed. The selected groups of RFs together covered an area of 17,963 km2. The area of individual groups of RFs ranged from as large as 2,233.11 km2 (Simlipal RF in Orissa) to as small as 9.26 km2 (RFs in Delhi). The total area of selected RFs constituted about 2.2 percent of the total recorded forest area of the country (or about 4.5 percent of total Reserved Forest area of the country). The size of the sample appears reasonable, and together with the fact that the sample was drawn from nearly all forested regions of the country, this exercise can provide an insight into the status of forest cover inside the recorded forests in the country. The data collected showed that on an average about 81.90 percent of area within RFs had forest cover. For the 32 sampled groups of RFs, the proportion of forest cover ranged from 43.14 percent (in Chamoli district of Uttaranchal where alpine grasslands and snow covered areas are also included in the RFs) to 99.09 percent (in Sikkim). Of these, 14 groups had forest cover of more than 90 percent over its area and 10 groups had between 80-90 percent forest cover. In case of 2 groups the forest cover was even less than 50 percent. It reveals that, on an average, at least 20 percent area within the reserved forests is without forest cover.